Congress elections are already rigged - Angula

08/11/2017
by Kelvin ChiringaNews

Swapo Party vice president hopeful Helmut Angula has said the massively publicised endorsement of Team Hage by regional and party structures is unconstitutional and against the spirit of the secret ballot.

So far, Erongo, Ohangwena, Zambezi and party wings among them the youth league, women’s council and the elders’ council have endorsed Geingob and the slate.

The regions and the wings that have endorsed Geingob are arguing that there should not be two centres of power.

Angula told The Villager yesterday in Windhoek that there has never been endorsements in the history of Swapo.

“That’s an invention which is illegal, unconstitutional. Our constitution provides for a secret ballot. There is nothing else!”

Angula also said endorsements, by nature, constitute vote-rigging.

“Now people are voting publicly because you are saying, “Who is endorsing?” That’s a public vote. That is not allowable in our constitution,” he said.

Furthermore, he said those who have made public endorsements are doing so because they do not want to be seen as if they are against the acting president.

“They will lose their bread,” said Angula, “So we are saying this is not all, this is un-Swapo. It never happened before and it should not happen. This is also not a clever [way of] rigging. This is the lowest level of rigging elections. What do you want to do with open votes?”

“Suppose now you fail, you don’t make it, are you going to say other people must have rigged because you’ve been endorsed by all the regions? And the vote will come out negatively, what will you tell the people, the world? How were you endorsed and did not achieve? Of course, you will come out and say, the elections must have been rigged because I was endorsed by everybody.”

Angula said Swapo was the only centre of power.

“Before you go to a national election, you have to be elected and mandated by the Swapo Party. There is no way that a Swapo member will be allowed to go and stand as an independent presidential candidate. All those who are in government are mandated from one centre. Any talk about two centres of power is just fabrication to cheat those people who don’t follow matters,” he said.

Once elected into power, Angula says he will have the balls to rein in on state -owned enterprises (SOEs) and close the tap over wanton appointments along political connections and patronage.

“We have to be transparent and be accountable,” he said, “We have to make sure that people are appointed on the basis of the knowledge of the management of the economy instead of picking people because they relate to you, or because they cannot face you or because they can just say yes boss, yes boss.”

He also said he will dare to wad into unchartered waters to the point of reducing the bloated public wage bill to save money.

“It [wage bill] has to be reduced, there is no other way,” he bluntly said, “And the reduction should not be done haphazardly. It should be done with plan. The plan is to increase the possibility and intensify the private sector’s involvement to invest.”

On fiscal consolidation he said, “It is not the Alpha and Omega. It is not the solution to the economy. You have to expand the economy. You have to involve the state- owned enterprises in the productivity of the country. You have to put investments in the productive sector instead of just thinking about how to satisfy people who are crying and dish out money left and right.”